Nepal Day 07 - Deboche

 0 miles - rest and recovery

Last night we both felt sick to our stomachs, and we felt unprepared to head out. Thus today was a test day. We took some medicine, rehydrated, and spent an easy day at the lodge.

Yesterday Bire told us more about his Everest trek in 2015 where he was at camp II when the earthquake struck. Before the earthquake, he had been back and forth thru the notorious Khumbu ice fall multiple times. On one passage, he was crossing a ladder that was designated as one person at a time, and he fell 25 meters into the crevasse spanned by the ladder. He was clipped in, not on belay. A climber behind him, a large man, didn’t see it happen, thought the ladder was clear, and started across. He had the rope tucked under his arm and felt Bire’s weight on the line. Once Bire extracted himself, fortunately unhurt, he was still in the middle of the icefall, and had to walk out across more crevasses on ladders.

After the earthquake, there was no communication outside of camp II until a satellite phone was located and messages relayed to families. Bire didn’t know how his family was either, and he had to stay at base camp for a month to clean up after the expedition. His family asked him not to go on more mountaineering expeditions, and he became a trekking guide instead.